Page 473 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

254 SAMAGRA Tll..AK - 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME
caught in seven leather straps is meant by the epithet Saptavadhri
as applied to Atri in this legend.
It is stated above that a whole hymn ( 78 ) of nine verses in
the 5th Matt~ala of the ~ig-Veda is ascribed to Atri Saptavadhri.
The deities addressed in this hymn are the Ashvins whom the poet
invokes for assistance in his miserable plight. The first six verses
of the hymn are simple and intelligible. In the first three, the
Ashvins are invoked to come to the sacrifice like two swans; and
in the fourth, Atri thrown into a pit, is said to have called on them.
like a wailing woman, for assistance. The 5th and the 6th verses
narrate the story of Saptavadhri, shut up in a tree or a wooden
case, whose sides are asked to tear asunder like the side of her
who bringeth forth a child. After these six verses come the last
three ( the hymn containing only nine verses, ) which describe
the delivery of a child, that was in the womb for 10 months; and
Vedic scholars have not as yet been able to explain what rational
connection these three verses could possibly have with the pre-
ceding six verses of the hymn.* According to Sayapa, these three
verses constitute what is called the Garbhasravilli-upani~had.
or the liturgy of child-birth; while Ludwig tries to explain the
concluding stanzas as referring to the delivery of a child, a sub-
ject suggested by the simile of a wailing woman in the 4th verse,
by the comparison of the side of the tree with the side of a partu-
rient woman. It seems, however, extraordinary, if not worse,
that a subject, not relevant except as a simile or by way of com-
parison, should be described at such length at the close of the
hymn. We must, therefore, try to find some other explanation,
or hold with Sayalla that an irrelevant matter, viz., the liturgy of
child-birth, is here inserted with no other object but to make
up the number of verses in the hymn. These verses may be lite-
raly translated as follows :-

" 7. Just as the wind shakes a pool of lotuses on all sides

• The last five verses of the hymn are as follows :-~ fiift!:~ 'l~et
~)fir;~~~ I~ ~ ~ {ii trn<f~{ 'i:f ~~II~ II lliffi"ll' i!T"<Fr[111<{
~ !iffiq'e.\:lf I +rrirf~JifflT ~ ~ 6 'i:f fct 'i:f~: II ~ II 11~ 'lffi: !{~
~~~:I g;qr et ~ ~ijjg fir~ ~: II 19 II W cmft ~liT iJif ~T ~W\
~~ I ~ ~ ~ ~ "R:T?f'IT II . c II ~ ~~: ~~) ar~ lffil'ft I
fil~-9 ~) • \ll'l~ ii~7~ arfi:t II "'II .